App manifest compatibility for Chromebooks

As you prepare your Android app to run on Chromebooks, you should consider the
device features that your app uses. Chromebooks don't support all of the
hardware and software features that are available on other devices running
Android. If your app requires specific features that aren't supported on
Chromebooks, it won't be available for installation on Chromebooks.

You declare your app's requirements for hardware features and certain software
features in the manifest file.
This document describes the app manifest feature declarations that aren't
compatible with Chromebooks.

Incompatible manifest entries

The manifest entries listed in this section aren't currently compatible with
Chromebooks. If your app uses any of these entries, consider removing them or
including the required="false" attribute value with them so that
your app can be installed on Chromebooks. For more information about declaring
feature use without requiring that the feature be available on the device, see
the guide for the <uses-feature> manifest element.

Note: See the
Features reference for a complete list of app manifest features and
descriptions.

Hardware features

Support for hardware features varies on Chromebooks. Some features aren't
supported on any Chromebooks while others are supported on some Chromebooks.

Special features

The following list includes features which got added for better hardware support on Chromebooks:

android.hardware.type.pc - disabling input emulation for
mouse and touchpad.
Note that you must indicate required="false" to
prevent that you can only run on Chromebooks.

Unsupported hardware features

The following list includes the hardware features that aren't currently
supported on Chromebooks:

Touchscreen hardware support

As of Chrome OS version M53, all Android apps that don't explicitly require the
android.hardware.touchscreen feature will also work on Chrome
OS devices that support the android.hardware.faketouch feature. Devices that have fake
touch interfaces provide a user input system that emulates basic touch events.
For example, the user could interact with a mouse or remote control to move an
on-screen cursor, scroll through a list, and drag elements from one part of the
screen to another.

If you don't want your app to be installed on devices that have fake touch
interfaces but not touchscreens, you can complete one of the following actions:

android.software.sip.voip – Voice Over Internet Protocol
(VoIP) service based on SIP, which supports two-way video conferencing

Permissions that imply feature requirements

Some permissions that you request in your manifest files can create implied
requests for hardware and software features. By requesting these permissions,
you'll prevent your app from being installed on Chromebooks.

For details about how to prevent permission requests from making your app
unavailable on Chromebooks, see the Incompatible
manifest entries section of this page.

The following table shows the permissions that imply certain feature
requirements which make an app incompatible with Chromebooks:

Table 1. Device permissions that imply hardware features which
are incompatible with Chromebooks.